Family Assistance proposed to become stand-alone program

Posted by Hannah John | Apr 4, 2022 | Politics |

WINDOW ROCK

Need help paying costs for a burial? Money to buy food? School clothing for children? Getting drinking water? Assistance with energy costs?

A Navajo Nation Council committee discussed ways to lessen the bureaucracy for people who need help and the staff that processes their applications.

During a Health, Education, and Human Services Committee work session last Monday, a proposal was made to turn the Navajo Family Assistance Services into a stand-alone program apart from the Department for Self-Reliance plan operation.

Roxanne Gorman, department manager of DSR, said the department assisted the program to become automated to help with the hundreds of applications it receives each week.

“We did consult with ACF (Administration for Children and Families) that we were going to be providing technical assistance and support to help NFAS become automated,” Gorman said.

“We were also in the process of helping them with revising their policies and then to move financial services from DFS (Department of Family Services) so DFS could focus on social work,” she said. “So those were the reasons as to why we accepted assisting Navajo Family Assistance Services at the time.”

During the pandemic, NFAS began receiving funds to help the Navajo people and Gorman said through this process, DSR began to exceed the technical support they could offer.

“So, in consultation with Mrs. Deannah Neswood-Gishey (executive director of the Division of Social Services), we determine that in the fall of 2020 it was necessary that NFAS be transferred to the division, which is a general-funded office, to oversee the activities of NFAS because it was becoming very consuming and we could cause harm to our TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) block grant, which does not allow DSR to fund non-DSR or non-TANF activities,” Gorman said.

Due to the amount of funding sources and policies and procedures, it was determined that NFAS should be and should have been a stand-alone program, Gorman said.

She also said Neswood-Gishey and the NFAS manager envision NFAS funding to require a data port which will help the program send funds to Navajo people without the need of checks.

In an effort to separate NFAS from the DSR, Gorman said NFAS got its own P.L. 93-638 self-determination contract.

Raeann Metteba, senior programs and projects specialist for NFAS, supports becoming a stand-alone program and gave examples of the number and type of applications it receives.

“We get ’638 burial assistance requests (which provides up to $2,500 towards funeral costs, $1,000 for a Native traditional funeral, and $1,300 towards cremation costs), general assistance requests, LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance) applications, CSBG (Community Services Block Grant) requests, we still have the school clothing applications that we’re trying to pay out, as well as LIHWAP (Low Income Household Water Assistance Program),” Metteba said.

“On a weekly basis, we’ve provided about 203 – that was just last week,” she said.

“We’re gotten 878 approved from our casework offices and about 1,458 that are pending payments,” she added. “That would kind of help to give insight as to how many applications we do receive on a weekly basis.”

There are 19 staffers currently working at NFAS, however, five are temporary employees. Out of the 19, two are stationed at the administration office and the remaining 12 are senior caseworkers at field locations.

NFAS is currently working to expand the staff, said Metteba, due to the number of applications that come in from the field locations.
Funding is needed to make NFAS a stand-alone program, she said, and the money would be used to establish infrastructure and capital out-lay to meet the needs of the employees, clients and facilities.

“Right now, we are sharing buildings with Department of Family Services as well as with BIA buildings which does kind of hinder or limit some of our services to our families out there,” Metteba said.

“So, we would to establish or at least get our own facilities so that we can better help our families that are in need and have a better place for them to apply,” she said.